VCU emphasizes research, spurs downtown growth
 Located on two campuses in downtown Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University is a vibrant urban university that combines a strong emphasis on research with comprehensive undergraduate, graduate and professional programs and one of the largest academic health centers in the nation. VCU is classified as a Carnegie Doctoral Research University-Extensive university, one of only three in Virginia ranked in this top category for higher education.
Medicinal Chemistry Professor Donald J. Abraham in his lab at the Institute for Structual Biology and Drug Discovery
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To facilitate its internationally renowned, cutting-edge scholarly activity, VCU has developed institutes and centers with an interdisciplinary approach.
Dr. Fenn accepts 2002 Nobel Prize in Sweden
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VCU's 1,600 full-time faculty are nationally and internationally recognized in their fields.
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Dr. John B. Fenn, research professor in the Department of Chemistry, was one of three international scientists to be awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his invention of a pioneering technique that allows researchers to weigh large molecules, such as proteins, through mass spectrometry.
The university enrolls more than 26,000 students in 160 undergraduate, graduate, professional and doctoral programs in 11 schools and one college.
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Forty of the university’s programs are unique in Virginia, and 20 graduate and professional programs have been ranked by U.S. News & World Report as among the best of their kind.
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Twelve of the programs are ranked in the Top 20, including
the School of the Art’s No. 1 graduate sculpture
program, which has been called “the hottest graduate
sculpture program in the country.”
VCU School of Engineering
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Approximately 1,200 undergraduates are health sciences majors; another 3,500 attend graduate programs in Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Biomedical Engineering, and an additional 3,400 attend undergraduate and graduate programs in Business.
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VCU’s Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
ranks in the Top 10 of National Institutes of Health-funded
programs of its type.
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VCU’s $50 million School of Engineering offers
degrees in biomedical, mechanical, electrical, chemical
and computer science engineering. The facility includes
7,500 square feet of Class 1000 clean room.
The VCU Medical Center, adjacent to the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park, is the fourth-largest university-affiliated teaching hospital in the nation. The proximity of the hospitals, clinics and health sciences schools of the VCU Medical Center to the BioTech Park provides just the right synergistic environment for faculty to pursue collaboration with industry.
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The School of Medicine houses the nation's second-oldest
transplant program and is known internationally for its
head injury, drug abuse and burn injury research.
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The number of invention disclosures at VCU has increased
from 29 in 1994 to about 100 per year, and annual licensing
revenue to VCU is approaching $1.5 million.
Eugene P. and Lois E. Trani Center for Life Sciences
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Recent strategic projects have included the launch of VCU Life Sciences, a comprehensive undergraduate and graduate program involving academic and medical faculty.
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The Eugene P. and Lois E. Trani Center for Life Sciences
houses the Department of Biology, the Center for Environmental
Studies, the Center for the Study of Biological Complexity,
a satellite lab of the Nucleic Acid Research Facility,
the Bioinformatics Computational Core Laboratory Suite
and the Office of the Vice Provost for Life Sciences.
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Located along Virginia’s largest aquatic ecosystem
— the James River — the Inger and Walter Rice
Center for Environmental Life Sciences provides students
and faculty with a living laboratory where they can study
the environment first hand.
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